For me, it started off around the time when I was 13/14 and had been listening to various songs from this one Air Guitar CD (which included Motorhead and Metallica). I soon ended up listening to early Machine Head, Sepultura and Metallica a few months after my 14th birthday. A few months after that, I was listening to Deicide, Nile, Dying Fetus, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer and Pantera. On my 15th birthday I first heard black metal in the form of Mayhem and Darkthrone, and soon after bought more and more.

When I was 8 my sister's boyfriend listened to bands like Rage against the machine and Metallica, so I listened to that. At that point I just listened to whatever they listened to, music wasn't that interesting at that age.
When I was a bit older I listened to bands like The prodigy and The offspring. And metal started at the age of 11/12 in 1998 when I met someone at high school into metal. He introduced me to bands like Sepultura, and also to a national aired metal radio show (Metalopolis) and a CD shop in town who carried loads of metal. After a few years I started exploring the metal underground.

Kiss' Destroter lp in the late 70's. Def Leppard, Priest, Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot in the early 80's, then I heard Master of Puppets and Reign in Blood. Then Death, Blood Feast, etc. So basically, Kiss started it all for me.

My brother used to shoplift tapes from the Wherehouse. He like Rush and old Judas Priest. The tape he hated was SLAYER's 'Show No Mercy'. "It sounds like noise", he said. I put it on and loved it!
I got my first paycheck around 1985 and promptly bought 'Speed Kills' and 'Morbid Tales'.
I've been hooked on Thrash ever since...

Unknown to most, but they sure are very famous in Euskadi! I'm probably a little older than you, and grew up listening to Eskorbuto, Kortatu, R.I.P., etc. among others... I still love a lot of original RRV bands!

I guess I first heard Van Halen on the radio when I was 11. I was into Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, but soon enough this classmate introduced me to both punk and metal. Circa 1985-1986 he lent me tapes of Metallica, Slayer, GBH, Exploited, Bérurier Noir (famous French punk), Exodus, Spanish/Basque punk, etc. There was no looking back, I was hooked to fast/loud/angry music. In early 1987 we both started our first punk/metal zine (we hardly knew what a zine was, we were 13 and totally clueless youngsters living in rural southwestern France). Within a couple of years I had started trading tapes and writing tons of mail to people all over the world and got heavily involved in the underground death metal network -- did a few zines, etc.

Heh yeah, i know lots of them! Sure you are little bit older, Kortatu is too old for me.. can we say La Polla, S.A... hehe sure you know em.

Well my introduction was pretty typical!!! Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and King Diamond... i was 12 or 13!!! then i listened to Deicide and Brujeria, also some Iron Maiden! but thats like so usual!!! now when i hear those bands i feel like in my early days!!! ha ha

Punk with Discharge, GBH, Poison Idea, GG Allin, Crass, Dirt, Conflict, Skrewdriver, Varukers and stuffs like that when was a kid thanks to a cousin & neighbours and started listening to Metal music with Venom, Twisted Sister, Tank, Grave Digger and Running Wild when I was an around 12 years old sow! Then, continued with Thrash (German), Death (Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Incantation) and Black Metal (Dark Throne, Mayhem, Graveland, Celtic frost, Bathory!!) bands._________________http://soundcloud.com/fabius-paulus/slave-of-satan

Bought pirate tapes of Metallica, Kreator, Celtic Frost, etc. at nightmarket somewhere in 1986/1987 during my high school days. Most of my exercise books,school bags,table,etc had logos of MAIDEN, DIO, METALLICA,etc. which I draw them when get bored at school, haha!!!

Those were the days of Metal, no other music shits, maybe DURAN-DURAN or NKOTB were hot for assholes back then, but not for me! Haha!!!!

This is one of my really old tapes from the early beginning : METALLICA "Master of puppets"

Guns N' Roses was my 1st Hard Rock Band I´ve conquered. I think I was 10 or 11....I started listen to Heavy / THrash Metal (Metallica, Sepultura, Sodom my 1st Bands...) in the age of 12/13...(No parents/Brothers or friends who have listened to Metal at this time) !

Quite the same over here... Haha, an ol' buddy and me were bycicling the 20km to a small town nearby to buy "Use Your Illusion I + II" on tape. Great time! Later we were a couple of guys in school who encountered the extreme realms of Metal in the early/mid nineties. But the actual starting shot was my very first concert in 1994 as that was the first contact with the underground and the whole tapetradin'-collecting records-thing began.

I was into AC/DC and other less worthy hardrock stuff which was popular when I was 10-12 or so, Poison, Twisted sister etc. Then when I was about 14 I discovered a radio show which was playing Death & Black metal in the middle of the night (unusual in a backwater like New Zealand) and started recording every show and tracking down as many albums as I could. I staill have some of those tapes I recorded off the radio in 93-96 - they still stand up pretty well and I think I was lucky to be exposed to such extreme stuff without actually having any freinds who were into it.

My mother bought me the tape of Iron Maidens debut as a christmas present about 87 or 88. A guy who used watch me and my brother when my parents went out was big in Venom, Sepultura, metallica, slayer and that shit and always brought along tapes to play...got hooked on it.

I got into metal very early and by complete accident.When I was 7 I bought KISS 'Rock & Roll Over'.I thought they were superheroes.When I was 8 I bought BLACK SABBATH 'WE Sold Our Souls For R&R' by accident as well.I thought it was aKISS record because of the lightning bolt 'S'.I remember being terrified when I put it on and the intro to 'Black Sabbath' kicked in.My terror kicked into overdrive when I opened the gatefold sleeve and saw the dead lady in the coffin holding a cross.It's been all downhill since then.